Gordon Matta-Clark1943-1978

Jennifer Wells

“By un-doing a building there are many aspects of the social

condition against which I am gesturing: to open a state of

enclosure which had been preconditioned not only by

physical necessity but by the industry that profligates suburban and urban boxes as a context for

insuring a passive, isolated consumer—a virtually captive

audience.” Gordon Matta-Clark, 1977

Bronx Floor: Floor Hole Bronx Floors: Threshole

1972 Gelatin Silver Prints“It was an activity that attempted to transform place into a state of mind by opening walls where doors never were or looking beneath the carpet to clear away the floor.”

Reality Properties: Fake Estates "Maspeth Onion" (Block 2406, Lot 148), 1973Gelatin silver print and documents

Reality Properties: Fake Estates, "Jamaica Curb," Block 10142, Lot 15, 1978Collaged gelatin silver prints, deed, and three maps

Reality Positions: Fake Estates, "Staten Island," Block 1224, Lot 12, 1978 Collaged gelatin silver prints, deed, and documents

“When I bought those properties at the New York City Auction the description of them that always excited me the most was ‘inaccessible.’ They were a group of fifteen micro-parcels of land. In Queens, left-over properties from an architects drawing. One or two of the prize ones were a foot strip down somebody’s driveway and a square foot of sidewalk. And the others were kerbstones and gutterspace. What I basically wanted to do was to designate spaces that wouldn’t be seen and certainly not occupied. Buying them was my own take on the strangeness of the existing property demarcation lines. Property is so all-pervasive/ Everyone’s notion of ownership is determined by the use factor.

A W-Hole House: Roof Top Atrium

1973Gelatin silver prints

A recreation of wall cuts from a room of A W-Hole House1973

in Genoa, Italy for the 2002 solo exhibition A W-Hole House

at David Zwirner, New York

Splitting

1974Collaged gelatin silver printsFramed: 41 x 31 inches (104.1 x 78.7 cm)

Documentation of Splitting1974

“So while this small not so happy house got cut and shifted

out of place, the action took only minutes of the building’s

history. Yet by my view all those pent-up lives respecting

the tiny cramped rooms were suddenly flooded with direct

sunlight.”

Installation view of Splitting: Four Corners1974

at the 2008 exhibition Cut: Revealing the Section at the San

Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Day's End (Pier 52)

1975

Chromogenic printSilver dye bleach print (Cibachrome)Silver dye bleach print (Cibachrome)

“During the afternoon the sun shines through a cat’s-eye-like ‘rose window’ in the west wall. At first a silver and then a strongly defined shape of light continues to wander into the wharf until the whole pier is fully illuminated at dusk. Below the rear ‘wall-hole’ is another larger quarter circular cut opening the floor of the south-west corner to a turbulent view of the Hudson water. The water and sun move constantly in the pier throughout the day in what I see as an indoor park.

Conical Intersect1975

Silver dye bleach print (Cibachrome)Collaged gelatin silver prints

Documentation of Conical Intersect 1975 in Paris

1977Silver dye bleach prints (Cibachrome)

Office Baroque

Documentation of Office Baroque 1977

in Antwerp, Belgium

Office Baroque1977

Building fragment: parquet wood flooring, drywall, and

wood; and silver dye bleach print

Circus Circus (Carribean Orange)

1977 1978

Silver dye bleach prints (Cibachrome)

Documentation of Circus (Carribean Orange)1978

at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Sous-Sols de Paris: Les Halles

1977Chromogenic prints

Sous-Sols de Paris: Bones and Bottles

Sous-Sols de Paris: Basilica

“In fact, the next area that interests me is an expedition into the underground: a search for the forgotten spaces left buried under the city either as historical reserve or as surviving reminders of lost projects and fantasies, such as the famed Phantom Railroad. This activity would include mapping and breaking or digging into these lost foundations: working back into society from beneath. Although the original idea involved possible subversive arts, I am now more interested in the act of search and discovery. This activity should bring art out of the gallery and into sewers.”

Questions?